This is your typical indie coming-of-age tale about a teenager, though it’s clearly working with a very tiny budget. Set within a migrant family living in Southern California’s Coachella Valley, the movie digs into how fragile old-school traditions and expectations can be. We follow a teenage son as he goes through the process of coming out and struggles to find acceptance while dealing with homophobia, domestic abuse, and a messy love triangle that involves his own sister. Goyo is seventeen and just about to graduate from high school. Since he’s been a bit more feminine since he was a little kid, he’s always had to deal with emotional and physical transition from his dad, Ramon, who is obsessed with him being "a man." The only real love he gets is from a lady next door who actually respects him for who he is. The family lives in a Mexican community where everyone works on a grape farm, but things get shaken up when a new guy named Lucio arrives. Lucio basically seduces Goyo ...
This film definitely was novel in its theme and treatment of it. I have seen many LGBT films (although primarily gay) but still haven't seen anything similar to what is shown here. It was a very touching drama about a post-op male to female transsexual and a former male schoolfriend. Karl Foyle and Paul Prentice were best mates at school in the Seventies. But when they meet again in present-day London things are definitely not the same. Karl is now Kim, a transsexual, and she has no desire to stir up the past while she's busy forging a neat and orderly new life. Prentice, on the other hand, has charm but is a social disaster stuck in a dead-end job. His main talent is for getting them both into trouble. Amid the squabbles, they start to fall in love. One night, Kim invites Prentice to a romantic dinner at her flat. Prentice, finding the seduction unexpectedly effective, freaks out. He proceeds to make a public display of both of them and winds up in court. Humiliated and angry, Kim runs away. Prentice begs Kim to save her. Ultimate;y love wins and he is rescued. To get his life in order, they decide to sell Kim's story to a newspaper and start a fresh life together as a couple.
OMG! The lead character who played Kim was awesome. You have to give it to the dude was portraying such a difficult role with elan. The movie essentially chronicles the emotional journey of this odd-couple; and it's done with the proper mix of humor and drama. Even Prentice as a rookie guy who doesn't know what to do with life trying to understand what and why Kim did what she did is interesting.
Definitely worth a watch. I can bet you haven't seen something like this before (6/10)
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